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From the program note of String Quartet: An AIDS Activist's
Memoir in Music.Tony-ony Macaroni, Parts 1 and 2, are
are my tribute to Tony Carden, my fellow activist in ACT UP. He
was the most playful of any of us, and had the best sense of
humor. He was an actor, had moved from Sydney to New York and was
on the brink of a major career but came back to Australia to care
for a sick friend. All of ACT UP's demonstrations had a
theatrical flair anyway, but Tony brought something only a
professional entertainer could. Once, to protest the lack of AIDS
beds at St Vincent's Hospital, he led an ACT UP protest that set
up a hospital ward, complete with beds, IV drips and nurses on
the front lawn of the home of the Health Minister. Tony made me
laugh.

His and my outspoken public personas were what people saw. But I
wanted to remember his sensitive side, the way he cared for his
dog Biche, his surprise gifts and cards to me to sustain our
morale, and his extraordinary artwork Warrior Blood. He
wasn't a professional artist but it was included in the National
Gallery of Australia's exhibition of AIDS-related art in 1994.
Warrior Blood was a collection of swatches stained with
blood of people he knew, including mine. Tony asked for blood
from people he considered soldiers in the war against AIDS. There
was HIV+ and HIV- blood on the swatches, and no one was told what
was which. My last memory related to him is playing the organ at
his funeral, and that shows up in the soaring hymn-like chorale
towards the end.